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Ghosts of the Abyss

James Cameron and Bill Paxton, director and actor of the 1997 film Titanic, travel to the final undersea resting place of the ill-fated ship of dreams. James Cameron and Bill Paxton, director and actor of the 1997 film Titanic, travel to the final undersea resting place of the ill-fated ship of dreams. James Cameron and Bill Paxton, director and actor of the 1997 film Titanic, travel to the final undersea resting place of the ill-fated ship of dreams.

• James Cameron
• Bill Paxton
• Lori Johnston
• Lewis Abernathy
• 44 User reviews
• 75 Critic reviews
• 67 Metascore
• See more at IMDbPro
• 1 nomination

• (as Dr. Lori Johnston)
• (as Dr. John Broadwater)
• (as Dr. Charles Pellegrino)

• (as Dr. Anatoly Sagalevitch)

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia (September 11, 2001) James Cameron and Bill Paxton were filming a sequence of the Titanic wreckage in Cameron's Deepsea Challenger submersible when the 9/11 attacks occurred.
• Goofs The fourth funnel is shown falling backwards when the ship breaks in two in the sinking simulation. It would do no such thing. It would fall forward like the other funnels. This is also seen in the "final plunge" montage with the photographs of the passengers who perished in the disaster superimposed in front of the footage of the ship sinking from the movie Titanic (1997) .

Bill Paxton : The crucial thing about deep-sea photography is lighting.

• Alternate versions The theatrical version was shortened down to 43 minutes running time so that it will fit into the standard screening schedule of the local IMAX theaters, i.e. an IMAX film must not run longer than 45 minutes so that it is possible to start a screening every hour.
• Connections Edited into Titanic al detalle (2013)
• Soundtracks Departure Written and Performed by Glen Phillips Courtesy of Inhale Music/Exhale Entertainment

User reviews 44

• psycho_boy_tyler
• Apr 17, 2003
• How long is Ghosts of the Abyss? Powered by Alexa
• September 10, 2003 (France)
• United States
• Official site
• Misterios del Titanic
• Titanic wreck, Titanic Canyon, North Atlantic, Atlantic Ocean
• Walt Disney Pictures
• Walden Media
• Earthship Productions
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $13,000,000 (estimated)
• $17,040,871
• Apr 13, 2003
• $27,570,076

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 1 minute
• Dolby Digital

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• Publisher Da Capo Press
• Publication date 2003
• ISBN 10  0306812231
• ISBN 13  9780306812231
• Binding Hardcover
• Edition number 1
• Number of pages 144
• Rating 4.45 avg rating • ( 218 ratings by Goodreads )

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You can buy "Ghosts of the Abyss" on Microsoft Store, AMC on Demand, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Vudu, DIRECTV, Amazon Video as download or rent it on Amazon Video, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Vudu, Microsoft Store, DIRECTV online.

With a team of the world's foremost historic and marine experts as well as friend Bill Paxton, James Cameron embarks on an unscripted adventure back to the wreck of the Titanic where nearly 1,500 souls lost their lives almost a century ago.

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Ghosts of the Abyss (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

January 1, 2003 29 Songs, 58 minutes ℗ 2003 Hollywood Records, Inc.

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Ghosts of the abyss.

2003 Directed by James Cameron

The legend no one can forget has become the greatest 3D adventure ever filmed.

With a team of the world's foremost historic and marine experts as well as friend Bill Paxton, James Cameron embarks on an unscripted adventure back to the wreck of the Titanic where nearly 1,500 souls lost their lives almost a century ago.

Bill Paxton John Broadwater James Cameron Mike Cameron Ken Marschall Don Lynch Adriana Valdez Piper Gunnarson Federico Zambrano Miguel Wilkins Charles Pellegrino

Director Director

James Cameron

Producers Producers

James Cameron John Bruno Chuck Comisky Janace Tashjian

Executive Producer Exec. Producer

Giedra Rackauskas

Casting Casting

Editors editors.

John Refoua Sven Pape Ed W. Marsh

Cinematography Cinematography

Additional photography add. photography.

D.J. Roller

Production Design Production Design

Martin Laing

Art Direction Art Direction

Patricio M. Farrell Javier Nava Leonard Barrit

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Todd Cherniawsky Leonard Barrit

Special Effects Special Effects

Sergio Lino

Visual Effects Visual Effects

Chuck Comisky Adam Howard Adalberto Al Lopez Mark Spatny Robert McInnis

Composer Composer

Joel McNeely

Sound Sound

Christopher Boyes Dennie Thorpe Jana Vance Beau Borders Gary Summers Dennis Baxter

Makeup Makeup

Kathe Swanson Raul Covarrubias

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Kathe Swanson

Earthship Productions Walt Disney Pictures Walden Media

Releases by Date

10 apr 2003, 04 feb 2004, 15 sep 2005, 14 mar 2023, releases by country.

• Digital 10 Netflix
• Theatrical 0
• Theatrical PG

61 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Matt Singer ★★½

Imagine you’re an actor who’s been in a bunch of James Cameron’s movies and he calls you and says hey want to do another film and you’re like sure what do you want to do and then he goes we‘re making a documentary about the Titanic wreckage and we’re gonna stick you in a sub and send you 12,000 feet down to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

Like, on these historic dives there are historians, scientists, biologists, submarine captains, photographers and ... Bill Paxton? Weird!

Review by David Sims ★★★ 1

who knew this had a 9/11 twist and so much Bill Paxton

Review by dmartsfilm ★★★

If anything it’s just fun to see James Cameron in his natural habitat: nerding out and doing adventurous things with technology. The actual footage of the wreckage of the Titanic is really cool to see and it provides us modern day people a chance to see what it really looked like. It’s an interesting little documentary that stays on a fairly average enjoyment level. Bill Paxton has some cool bits in here and when they come up from the deep and hear for the first time about 9/11 it’s genuinely interesting. Let’s just say it: James Cameron is a baller

Review by anna nomaly ★★★

An oddly fascinating bit of self-aggrandizement, Cameron’s documentary romanticizes his own achievements as much as it fetishizes every minute detail surrounding the RMS Titanic’s sinking. While the inclusion of Bill Paxton, Lewis Abernathy, and countless references to the feature film make this a touch more engaging than the dry, museum-ready piece it could’ve been, it also turns Ghosts of the Abyss into an early example of nostalgia-baiting, for a movie that was barely five years old in early 2003. The date reveal in the final ten minutes is a masterful howler.

Review by Jacob

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

james cameron and bill paxton emerging from the depths of the ocean and being told 9/11 just happened

Review by Séamus Malekafzali ★★½ 1

there's a part in this movie near the end where we are taken on a whimsical adventure to rescue a camera bot that got trapped within the wreckage of the titanic and then we're informed after the fact that we shouldn't have found that exciting because 9/11 happened while they were doing that

Review by jonathan ★★★½

If you hated Jack and Rose...

If you wanted to see more of Bill Paxton narrating his selfie video at the bottom of the ocean...

If you wish the nerd scenes in James Cameron's Titanic were 90 minutes long...

this is the documentary for you.

The superimposition of archival photos and bits of live action over unique footage of the wreck is both eerie and cool. The film of the wreckage is beautiful. Even watching the logistics of getting the various submersibles on and off the ships in high seas and down to the depths of the wreck is visually amazing.

But this documentary feels a little too indulgent and self-important for my taste. A close-up of Bill Paxton's face…

Review by Spooky Lucy ☠️🎃🏳️‍⚧️ 🏳‍🌈 ★★★½

The Cameron Collective: "Ghosts of the Abyss"

The greatest 9/11 twist since "Remember Me".

Review by CinemaCl🎃wn ★★★

After dazzling the entire world with his 1997 epic romance & disaster film that went on to become the first film to gross over a billion dollars at box-office, remained the highest grossing film of all time for over a decade, and also won a staggering 11 Academy Awards including Best Picture, visionary filmmaker James Cameron journeys back to the site that inspired one of the greatest & grandest spectacles to ever grace the silver screen.

Ghosts of the Abyss follows James Cameron as he returns to the 1912 wreckage of the RMS Titanic in order to obtain more detailed images than ever before. Exploring almost the entirety of the ruins from inside-out with the help of newly developed technology, the documentary…

Review by lucas ᱬ ★★★ 2

and many times when i close my eyes im suddenly back there, floating over the wreck, and i feel like im a ghost of the abyss.

Review by KnuckleScraper

Rules that Cameron has the single coolest answer to the “ where were you on 9/11 ” question imaginable and can back it up with video evidence.

Review by Cody Dericks ★★★

Pretty damn cool Titanic wreckage and then BAM 9/11 outta nowhere

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MOVIE MUSIC UK

• Fathers of Film Music
• Greatest Scores of the Twentieth Century

GHOSTS OF THE ABYSS – Joel McNeely

Following his Oscar winning 1997 movie Titanic, director James Cameron has since become very interested in the shipwreck of the real life ocean liner, which struck an iceberg on 14 April 1912, while on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, and sunk beneath the freezing waters of the north Atlantic, killing almost 1,500 passengers. In Ghosts of the Abyss, Cameron, along with a team of the world’s foremost historic and marine experts and his friend, actor Bill Paxton, embarks on an unscripted adventure back to where some of the footage for his dramatic film was shot. Using state-of-the-art technology and new 3-D IMAX cameras developed expressly for this expedition, Cameron and his crew explore virtually all of the wreckage, inside and out, as never before. In addition, actors re-create key moments from the Titanic’s last moments (in a way similar to Discovery Channel documentaries), breathing life and immediacy to the science.

Written for a full orchestra with appropriately augmented synthesizers and occasional voices, Joel McNeely generally eschews the “knock ’em out of their seats’ style of scoring usually favored by IMAX composers, and delivers a score which is emotionally rich, appropriately dramatic when needed, understated and reverential at times, moody and ghostly at others, and which offers a truly rewarding listening experience. This is great stuff, and it is heartening to see McNeely scoring major movies once again after several years in the doldrums – in addition to this, McNeely wrote four cinematic scores in 2003 (notably the critically acclaimed “Holes”, and the Disney sequel “Jungle Book 2”).

Unsurprisingly, some of Joel McNeely’s work is similar to the Oscar-winning score James Horner wrote back in 1997. Even more surprisingly, quite a lot of it is not, and it is to McNeely’s credit that he ignored what must have been a great temptation to simply re-create Horner’s dramatic masterpiece. The Irish elements are there, again paying tribute to the shipbuilders in who worked on the great vessel. The synthesizers, again, add a modern twist to the tale, and layer in an appropriately ethereal mood, while McNeely’s lovely orchestra gives it that warm, human center. But McNeely’s score seems more introspective and less concerned with interpreting human emotion, instead celebrating the job of discovery and lamenting lives lost. He also peppers it with a series of modern, upbeat, rock-driven tracks that come as welcome surprise.

Of the orchestral tracks, ‘Main Title’ opens the score portion of the CD to great effect, an eerie yet enticing awakening. ‘Getting Ready’ mixes modern electronics with electric guitars and traditional Irish orchestrations to great effect, resulting in an engaging montage cue. Both ‘Floating Above the Deck’ and ‘The Ship’s Engines’ are beautiful, and manage to convey both the epic size and great tragedy that befell the ship, the former segueing out into an action cue that echoes Horner’s previous work. Other cues such as ‘The Grand Staircase’, ‘Elegance Past’ and ‘I… I Had to Go’ deliver a series of charming, effective piano and orchestra ruminations on life aboard the White Star Line, the latter of these bearing a striking stylistic similarity to the work of Thomas Newman. The Irish element is highlighted again in ‘Building the Ship’, where a pennywhistle and pipes join in the fun, and the final five score tracks, from ‘The End’ through to ‘Saying Goodbye to Titanic’ bring emotional intensity, strength, and sympathetic orchestral lushness to the great tragedy’s conclusion.

On the other side of the coin, ‘Dangerous Recovery’ is a modern, thrusting action cue that sounds like a Media Ventures wannabe, while ‘Jake and Elwood’ (a clever play on words from The Blues Brothers), is a surprisingly good rock track. The two songs which bookend the score are both serviceable, the conclusive ‘Darkness Darkness’ by Lisa Torban especially remaining in the memory. Dotted in amongst the score tracks are Titanic musical legends such as ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band’ and ‘Nearer My God To Thee’, faithfully recreated to maintain historical accuracy and authenticity. The only negative (if there is one) is that there is no familiar, recurring theme to tie the score together – a tiny niggle, to be sure, but nevertheless a niggle.

I actually surprised myself at how much I enjoyed this score. IMAX films are often notable for their expansive musical accompaniment, and composers such as Alan Williams and Sam Cardon have made genuine careers writing aural accompaniments for the stunning visuals. Although Ghosts of the Abyss is a very different score to, say, Island of the Sharks, McNeely’s lightness of touch and empathy for the subject matter makes for a compelling album. After plumbing the depths with The Avengers, Soldier and Virus a few years ago, it’s wonderful to see McNeely’s career beginning to take off again, and his work here can only serve him well for future, equally important assignments.

Rating: ****

Track Listing:

• Departure (written and performed by Glen Phillips) (2:33)
• Main Title (1:16)
• Apprehension (1:29)
• Getting Ready (1:20)
• Titanic Revealed (3:11)
• Floating Above the Deck (3:01)
• Dangerous Recovery (1:28)
• Valse Septembre (written by Felix Godin) (2:19)
• The Windows (0:47)
• Jake and Elwood (2:14)
• The Bots Go In (1:33)
• Titsy Bitsy Girl (written by Ivan Caryll and Lionel Monckton) (1:52)
• The Grand Staircase (1:33)
• Exploring the Staterooms (1:51)
• Song Without Words (written by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky) (2:26)
• Elegance Past (2:10)
• Building the Ship (1:28)
• I… I Had to Go (1:54)
• The Ship’s Engines (1:42)
• Alexander’s Ragtime Band (written by Irving Berlin) (1:53)
• The Final Day (2:15)
• The End (3:17)
• Memorials (1:18)
• Go Toward the Light (1:31)
• The Next Morning (2:08)
• Nearer My God to Thee (written by John B. Dykes) (0:55)
• Saying Goodbye to Titanic (1:55)
• Eternal Father, Strong to Save (written by John B. Dykes and William Whiting) (3:02)
• Darkness, Darkness (written by Jesse Colin Young, performed by Lisa Torbin) (4:05)

Running Time: 58 minutes 29 seconds

Hollywood 2061-62397-2 (2003)

Music composed and conducted by Joel McNeely . Orchestrations by David Brown, Marshall Bowen and Frank Macchia . Recorded and mixed by Rich Breen . Edited by Craig Pettigrew . Mastered by Pat Sullivan . Album produced by James Cameron, Randy Gerston and Joel McNeely .

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Into the Abyss

• Documentary

Documentary from Werner Herzog ( Cave of Forgotten Dreams ,  Grizzly Man ) examining capital punishment - on why people kill, and why the state kills.

The focus is on a triple homicide case in Texas. Herzog interviews (though as he told the Guardian , he doesn't like the term 'interviews': "I'm not a journalist; I'm a poet. I had a discourse, an encounter with these people but I never had a list of questions.") 28-year-old death row inmate Michael Perry, scheduled to die within eight days.

He also speaks with families of the victims and perpetrators, as well as a state executioner and pastor who have been with death row prisoners as they’ve taken their final breaths. Herzog describes it as "a gaze into the abyss of the human soul."

Where to watch Into the Abyss

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Into the Abyss | Ratings & Reviews

Rotten tomatoes® rating, audience score rating.

"Dares to plumb the dark hole in America's soul. Herzog's investigation may not work as an anti-death-penalty editorial, but its findings are undeniably profound."

"Herzog's tapestry testifies to life's light from death's darkness. Its honest humanity and sideways-on character bare his illuminating imprint."

"Superficially resembles the kind of titillating, moralizing true-crime shockumentary that is a staple of off-hours cable television. But the grim ordinariness of the narrative makes its Dostoyevskian dimensions all the more arresting."

"It is a sombre, thoughtful, restrained and often powerful piece of work."

"May be the saddest film Werner Herzog has ever made. It regards a group of miserable lives, and in finding a few faint glimmers of hope only underlines the sadness."

"What is missing is something new - clarity, insight, outrage. Instead, its understatement is ultimately its undoing."

"Above all it's a portrait of stunned grief, of the devastation families endure, whether through violence, accidents, illness or incarceration."

"A haunting portrayal of people who are neither completely innocent nor wholly evil, and the terrible price of killing, whether in the pursuit of a sports car or in the name of justice."

"Powerfully suggests that violent death of any kind, whether personal or state-mandated, transforms everyone in its vicinity."

Into the Abyss | Details

Into the abyss | trailers.

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